Editing Right Opposition (section)

==Emergence==
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=|quote="He is an unprincipled intriguer, who subordinates everything to the preservation of his own power. He changes his theory according to whom he needs to get rid of."|source=Bukharin on Stalin's theoretical position, 1928.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sakwa |first1=Richard |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union |date=17 August 2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-80602-7 |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJ6IAgAAQBAJ&dq=bukharin+he+changes+his+theory+according+to+whom+he+needs+to+get+rid+of&pg=PA165 |language=en}}</ref>}}

The struggle for power in the Soviet Union after the death of [[Vladimir Lenin]] saw the development of three major tendencies within the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]]. These were described by [[Leon Trotsky]] as left, right, and centre tendencies, each based on a specific class or caste. Trotsky argued that his tendency, the [[Left Opposition]], represented the internationalist traditions of the [[working class]]. The tendency led by [[Joseph Stalin]] was described as being in the [[Centrist Marxism|centre]], based on the state and party bureaucracy, tending to shift alliances between the left and the right. The right tendency was identified with the supporters of Nikolai Bukharin and Rykov. It was asserted that they represented the influence of the peasantry and the danger of [[capitalism|capitalist]] restoration.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}}  Their policy was closely identified with the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP), with former [[Left communism#Russian left communism|left communist]] Bukharin slowly moving to the right of the Bolshevik Party and becoming a strong supporter of the NEP starting in 1921. Right Opposition policies encouraging [[kulak]]s and [[NEPman|NEPmen]] to "get rich" were seen by Right Opposition supporters as encouraging kulaks and NEPmen to "grow into" socialism.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Ramnath |last1=Narayanswamy |type=Review |title=Peasants, Class, and Capitalism: The Rural Research of L. N. Kristman and his School. By Terry Cox. New York: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press, 1986. xii, 271 pp. Maps. Tables. $42.00, cloth |journal=Slavic Review |volume=47 |issue=3 |date=Autumn 1988 |pages=543–544 |doi=10.2307/2498413 |jstor=2498413 |s2cid=164423869}}</ref>

[[Robert J. Alexander]] has questioned whether the various Right Oppositions could be described as a single international tendency, since they were usually concerned only with the issues relevant for their own countries and their own communist parties. Therefore, the Right Opposition was far more fragmented than the Left Opposition. Nevertheless, the various Right Opposition groups did come together to form an International Communist Opposition (ICO). Unlike the Left Opposition, they did not tend to form separate parties as they considered themselves loyal to the [[Communist International]] (Comintern).{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}}